Greek Centrist Potami Quits PASOK-Led Coalition

The Greek centrist party Potami voted on Sunday to leave the Movement for Change (KINAL) group, led by once powerful PASOK, only a few months after it entered the coalition.

With a vote of 97 in favor and 16 against the motion to leave KINAL, Potami’s MPs adopted the position put forward by leader Stavros Theodorakis in his keynote speech to a meeting of party officials in Athens.

Potami’s departure from the Movement for Change was expected by analysts, following a public disagreement between Theodorakis and leader of KINAL Fofi Gennimata over the “Macedonia” deal.

Gennimata rejected the deal on the grounds that it made serious concessions to Skopje. Theodorakis, on the other hand, said the agreement was fundamentally positive and urged KINAL to back it.

Most opinion polls of recent weeks put KINAL in third place trailing governing SYRIZA and conservative main opposition New Democracy.